Committee
Health Committee, 30 Nov 2004
30 Nov 2004 · S2 · Health Committee
Item of business
Scottish Public Services Ombudsman
Professor Brown:
Watch on SPTV
Eric Drake can supplement any points that I make. Informing the public is a big challenge for us, because we need to inform them about a lot. We will have informed the sector and the public via other agencies in the first instance, given that we must be careful about resources. We have worked a bit with pilots through citizens advice bureaux, which people tend to approach first when they have problems, and with other advocacy agencies.From January next year, we will have a programme of more direct ways of conveying messages. We would be interested to hear what MSPs and others consider to be the most effective ways of reaching the constituents who are the least likely to use our service. All the evidence shows that those who depend most on public services are least likely to approach an ombudsman. One aspiration of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Act 2002 was to reverse that inequality, which is not direct but indirect. We will target organisations, too, because the exercise is big.Shona Robison asked at what point we can intervene in service failure. We appreciate that bodies under our jurisdiction have many demands on their resources. If they have several objectives to achieve with those resources, we will examine how they have reached decisions and why they might prioritise one matter over another.We return to whether supplying a service is a function of the body that is involved. Kate Maclean pressed that point because she recognises that legislative interpretation is often involved. The question is whether supplying a service is a function of a body or something that it could provide with other services but which it chose not to prioritise because it gave other matters higher priority. We will consider how such decisions are reached.I will give a silly example. If a body had a meeting at which it said, "We quite fancy doing X rather than Y," that would not be good logic for a decision. However, if it had evidence and papers on why X was a priority and why it would use its resources that way, we would consider that because it might show that the decision was properly made.
In the same item of business
The Convener:
SNP
Agenda item 3 is a briefing from the Scottish public services ombudsman. I welcome Professor Alice Brown to the committee. I also welcome Eric Drake, the dep...
Professor Alice Brown (Scottish Public Services Ombudsman):
Eric Drake and I welcome the opportunity to speak to the committee today. We offered to do so because I thought that it would be helpful if we were able to e...
Eric Drake (Scottish Public Services Ombudsman):
As Alice Brown said, there are a number of issues that we can consider and some that we cannot. The essential definition of our jurisdiction is that we look ...
Professor Brown:
It is worth stressing that, in relation to most cases that come to us, we spend a lot of time at the beginning giving people advice about what they need to d...
The Convener:
SNP
Thank you. We have about 10 minutes to deal with members' questions. I ask members to keep them as brief as possible. If the answers are brief, too, we will ...
Kate Maclean (Dundee West) (Lab):
Lab
I think that Eric Drake spoke about failure to provide a service as opposed to failure in the service that is provided. Can you please give an example of wha...
Eric Drake:
As I said, the legislation talks about the"failure of the authority to provide a service which it was a function of the authority to provide."The example tha...
Kate Maclean:
Lab
So, it would be up to an individual's interpretation of what is meant by a statutory service. You also said that you could not consider properly made decisio...
Eric Drake:
Yes. For example, some years ago, the English health ombudsman examined a case in which a chap who had serious brain injuries did not need hospital care any ...
Kate Maclean:
Lab
So, the matter is about the service that is provided, not about where or how it is provided.
Eric Drake:
Yes. It is about whether a service should be provided at all.
Mr Davidson:
Con
I agree that there is a need for a route map of the NHS for the public to use. We all probably have queries about what that would do. However, health boards ...
Professor Brown:
Yes—that was the purpose of the roadshow events. We have been round all 15 health board regions and have talked through many such matters. My impression is t...
Mr Davidson:
Con
Will you set a timescale in which people can expect the NHS to deal with the process?
Professor Brown:
Setting the timescale for the NHS is less clear cut; we tend instead to issue good practice guidance on the process. That said, it is perhaps more defined in...
Janis Hughes (Glasgow Rutherglen) (Lab):
Lab
People often come to MSPs after they have complained to a consultant and received a reply, after which the matter has not been taken further. What would you ...
Professor Brown:
Members of the public can get very confused about whether they have exhausted a body's complaints process. Before I answer the question, I point out that we ...
Janis Hughes:
Lab
You said that you cannot overturn a properly made decision. However, if such a decision has not been properly made and you are upholding a complaint, what po...
Professor Brown:
We can recommend that the body in question offer some form of redress. I point out that some areas are easier than others in that respect. Health is the most...
Mike Rumbles (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (LD):
LD
I want to pursue an example of that. The 19th report in your submission centres on the removal of a patient from a GP list, and you say in your recommended r...
Eric Drake:
A special report might be made to Parliament but, in this case, the local health board has had further discussions with the GPs concerned, who have now apolo...
Mike Rumbles:
LD
So you have teeth.David Davidson asked about reasonable time for a health board to complete its investigations, including the independent review. I am not re...
Professor Brown:
The independent review stage is being removed. However, if we feel that there has been undue delay, we might intervene earlier.When someone has not exhausted...
Mike Rumbles:
LD
I will be in touch.
Professor Brown:
I am sure that you will.
Shona Robison (Dundee East) (SNP):
SNP
Having sat with a lady who had followed an exhausting complaints process in the health service, I think that it is good that the complaints procedure will be...
Professor Brown:
Eric Drake can supplement any points that I make. Informing the public is a big challenge for us, because we need to inform them about a lot. We will have in...
Eric Drake:
In examining the NHS internal complaints procedure, the Scottish Executive has sensibly obtained outside help to draft leaflets in plain English, so that the...
Dr Jean Turner (Strathkelvin and Bearsden) (Ind):
Ind
How can you help people who make a complaint while having treatment but who do not want to take it too far? Having highlighted their need or asserted themsel...
The Convener:
SNP
That probably comes under the heading "specific". You might not want to comment on that, in case that particular case comes up.